Does Edward Snowden even exist?
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
Please tell me I am not the only one who stopped reading here.
He's a CIA burner, used to attack the increasing dominance of the NSA within the US intelligence apparatus. This is an internal battle.
The CIA is having its budget slashed, and field intelligence in general is getting cut. Meanwhile the NSA is doing a booming business (not to mention having its authority gradually increased toward military warfare, through direct intelligence and military commingling).
I think it's very arguable that next to the Department of Defense, the NSA is now the most powerful organization in the US, exceeding the power of the executive branch.
...The NSA is under DoD which is under the power of the Executive. By definition, their power cannot exceed the power of the Executive.
>It operates as its own organization with its own budget. And it directly fights with the CIA for funding.
Technically everything in the government is fighting for a piece of the federal budget. Are you sure he isn't actually a Post Office burn? They've been trying to get additional federal funding for years and with the decline in the post due in no small part to email (which the post office tried and failed to tax) and other forms of electronic communication, have posted continuous losses quarter after quarter. If people mistrusted electronic communication and the NSA had its budget cut, it would be a double win for the post office. Clearly I have arrived at the heart of the matter: Snowden was actually a Post Office agent working inside the CIA and then the NSA as part of a long term plan to move the Post Office ledger into the black.
You're wrong about the USPS. The Post Office is almost completely self-funded. Historically it has been forced to operate within budget constraints based on revenue that it takes in, and it will be contracted in size to match its inflows. It is not funded like the CIA, not even remotely similar. Maybe you'd like a chance to come up with a replacement sarcastic paragraph that actually works?
"Few Americans know it, but the post office gets no tax dollars; it is entirely self-funded."
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-12/opinions/37048...
The CIA and NSA are funded out of a specific intelligence budget pool. Thus they compete directly with each other for money.
"Funding for the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies will see a $4.4 billion decrease under President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget request, even as those agencies deal with the across-the-board spending cuts imposed last month. Obama is seeking $48.2 billion for U.S. spy agencies, an 8 percent drop from the president’s $52.6 billion request for fiscal 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported. In 2012, funding was even higher, with the agencies receiving $53.9 billion."
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-budget-cuts-cia/2013/...
It's not the NSA or Cyber Command that is seeing budget cutting.
And I think what you meant is, the Executive is legally supposed to be more powerful than the DoD or NSA. That only applies if our government actually follows Constitutional law, which it does not. Reality is a lot different than 8th grade social studies. See: J Edgar Hoover, more powerful than most Presidents we've had.
Close. He's actually a stooge for the Illuminati. That's why the media is focusing on him instead of the NSA programs.
Actually he's a double agent working for Russia. That's why he wasn't on the plane.
Actually... he was slated to do this by the Bilderberg organization to create a new world order. I know this because he hasn't been apprehended yet.
How am I doing at creating baseless conspiracy theories based on circumstantial evidence?
Fortunately mine is actually plausible. US Government agencies fight with each other 24/7 for funding and power.
"Editor’s note for the literal minded ... this comment is not actually suggesting Edward Snowden is a stooge for the Illuminati. It’s just a conceit to make a larger point."